1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to medical equipment and, more specifically, to a Gurney Clamp, Detachable Equipment Stand and Associated Transport Cart.
2. Description of Related Art
Portable medical equipment for monitoring and/or treating a patient is used daily by emergency medical personnel in ambulances, but also in the hospital environment. It is not uncommon for a patient to be transferred from an ambulance to a hospital emergency room, all the while having electronic monitors and related equipment connected to the patient. As the equipment manufacturers have added more and more capabilities to these portable units, the units not only have become more necessary, but also have become more unwieldy as well as more expensive. As a result, the cost of damaged equipment has escalated, while at the same time the risk of doing damage to the equipment has increased.
The current approach for transporting the portable equipment used by health care providers is to place the monitor on the patient's gurney during transport, and then onto the floor or other surface that is in close proximity to the patient's bed. The problem with this is that the equipment can tend to be heavy and difficult to manage. There usually are cables, wires and/or tubes running between the equipment and the patient. Furthermore, the equipment is design to rest on a flat surface, and is usually not equipped with any sort of straps or clips to aid in securing the equipment in place.
One particular drawback of the prior approach is that it does not allow a patient to be transferred from a bed to a gurney without disconnecting and then reconnecting the monitoring equipment.
What is needed, then, is a system and assembly that provides a convenient, stable location for portable medical equipment to be transferred from a vehicle to a gurney and back again securely and without risk to the patient or the equipment. Furthermore, the system and assembly should permit the patient to be transferred while the equipment remains mounted and safely secured.